By Alec Go
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has appointed journalist Jose Torres Jr. as the new director general of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Malacañang announced Tuesday.
He was appointed on March 19, according to an update by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
The new PIA chief served in various private media outlets in the country and abroad, including ABS-CBN, GMA New Media, and the Union of Catholic Asian News.
Torres replaced Ramon Cualoping, who resigned from the state-run information agency on April 4, after serving as assistant secretary for the PCO from 2016 to 2020 and as undersecretary and head of the PIA since 2020.
“My resignation which I tendered on April 4, 2023, to give PCO Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil a free hand to choose whom she sees best to be the Director-General of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), has been accepted,” he said in a statement on Monday.
“I have announced to the PIA officials and my staff this development. I ensure a smooth transition to my successor once the Office of the President announces it,” he added. – gb
